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Topic: A Game Journal Reborn

An aside: Can anyone recommend an exploration focused-game with a Myst-like feel to it? In the mood for playing in a world I can explore, but with a notebook and pen by my side as I discover things and take notes for potential puzzles. No/limited combat would be good. Just an adventure.

I started FFX-2 last night to work on when I get tired of grinding in FFX. I literally just started it, only getting to the beginning of the first real mission on Gagazet. That being said, I already have a few thoughts:

- HD Paine looks pretty awesome, but the other two just look kind of off, I can't really put my finger on why.- I like that the character portraits change now depending on the dressphere you have equipped.- Going through the effort of setting up a concert for fake Yuna, with absolutely no purpose other than to piss off YRP, makes LeBlanc the greatest troll in Spira.- The international features so far seem very shoehorned in. The festivalist dressphere is just kind of tossed your way randomly. And Shinra's all like "Oh hey, new feature" for Creature Creator even though it CAN CHANGE THE ENTIRE GAME- The UI didn't get quite the level of facelift that FFX's did, which kind of sucks because I'm not a huge fan of the original menu.

I started FFX-2 last night to work on when I get tired of grinding in FFX. I literally just started it, only getting to the beginning of the first real mission on Gagazet. That being said, I already have a few thoughts:

- HD Paine looks pretty awesome, but the other two just look kind of off, I can't really put my finger on why.- I like that the character portraits change now depending on the dressphere you have equipped.- Going through the effort of setting up a concert for fake Yuna, with absolutely no purpose other than to piss off YRP, makes LeBlanc the greatest troll in Spira.- The international features so far seem very shoehorned in. The festivalist dressphere is just kind of tossed your way randomly. And Shinra's all like "Oh hey, new feature" for Creature Creator even though it CAN CHANGE THE ENTIRE GAME- The UI didn't get quite the level of facelift that FFX's did, which kind of sucks because I'm not a huge fan of the original menu.

So when you get tired of grinding in FFX, you go grind AP in FFX-2 ?=P

Blitzball still isn't generating the prizes I want and my team is getting way over-leveled to the point that I'm not even challenged anymore so I stopped and starting capturing 5 of every creature in every area to get the 99 Dark Matters. Need that ribbon ability to put on my genji shield that already has Break HP Limit, Auto-Phoenix, and Auto-Haste. After that, grinding until I can beat those damn dark aeons so I can finally get Anima and the Magus Sisters... I really hate myself for missing that first destruction sphere.

Blitzball still isn't generating the prizes I want and my team is getting way over-leveled to the point that I'm not even challenged anymore so I stopped and starting capturing 5 of every creature in every area to get the 99 Dark Matters. Need that ribbon ability to put on my genji shield that already has Break HP Limit, Auto-Phoenix, and Auto-Haste. After that, grinding until I can beat those damn dark aeons so I can finally get Anima and the Magus Sisters... I really hate myself for missing that first destruction sphere.

I feel like as a European it was my duty to warn the Americans of this situation. Mah bad </3

Blitzball still isn't generating the prizes I want and my team is getting way over-leveled to the point that I'm not even challenged anymore so I stopped and starting capturing 5 of every creature in every area to get the 99 Dark Matters. Need that ribbon ability to put on my genji shield that already has Break HP Limit, Auto-Phoenix, and Auto-Haste. After that, grinding until I can beat those damn dark aeons so I can finally get Anima and the Magus Sisters... I really hate myself for missing that first destruction sphere.

I feel like as a European it was my duty to warn the Americans of this situation. Mah bad </3

Haha it's more my fault than anything. My friend missed the same destruction sphere and was only 4 hours in and started over because he didn't want to deal with the Dark Aeons before getting Anima and the Magus Sisters.

I am a little over twenty hours into Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and I'm currently in Yamata and headed for Tonfon. Still enjoying it a lot, but I just learned that I missed the Eclipse summon and now I can't get it :-(

I finally got a pair of headphones so that I can hear the music on the train. It's good, but I'm finding I don't like it quite as much as GS/TLA. And I know it's MIDI, but it sounds especially tinny to me for some reason even without the headphones.

Also, I'm noticing that there don't seem to be as many bosses in this game as there were in the previous games. It's okay, I guess, it's just that it doesn't give me the opportunity to see the sick summon animations as much as I'd like since most of the regular encounters can be finished pretty easily by just basic attacks/psynergy. Ah well.

An aside: Can anyone recommend an exploration focused-game with a Myst-like feel to it? In the mood for playing in a world I can explore, but with a notebook and pen by my side as I discover things and take notes for potential puzzles. No/limited combat would be good. Just an adventure.

First one that comes to my mind is Fez. It's a platformer, but the challenges require more thinking than skill. Which instantly makes it the best platformer ever in my book. :P But seriously, there are no lives, the check points are frequent, and a lot of it is just trying to explore and collect stuff, with things you have to come back to later, as well as solving puzzles.

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes

om nom nom Xi Wangmu in IkebukuroHopefully it picks back up. I actually found it pretty challenging up to that point with the tutorial dungeon probably being the hardest.

Hate to break it to you, but it doesn't. It's insanely easy after the beginning. The last boss can be difficult depending on your path and experience with SMT, but the game doesn't go above normal difficulty from where you're at.

om nom nom Xi Wangmu in IkebukuroHopefully it picks back up. I actually found it pretty challenging up to that point with the tutorial dungeon probably being the hardest.

Hate to break it to you, but it doesn't. It's insanely easy after the beginning. The last boss can be difficult depending on your path and experience with SMT, but the game doesn't go above normal difficulty from where you're at.

:(

That is kind of disappointing. Guess it is due to the new fusion system. Don't get me wrong, it removes a lot of the tedium present in previous games but it also allows you to create teams that can handle any situation pretty early on thanks to the inheritance system. Still, I am having a lot of fun with the game and don't expect that to stop.

om nom nom Xi Wangmu in IkebukuroHopefully it picks back up. I actually found it pretty challenging up to that point with the tutorial dungeon probably being the hardest.

Hate to break it to you, but it doesn't. It's insanely easy after the beginning. The last boss can be difficult depending on your path and experience with SMT, but the game doesn't go above normal difficulty from where you're at.

:(

That is kind of disappointing. Guess it is due to the new fusion system. Don't get me wrong, it removes a lot of the tedium present in previous games but it also allows you to create teams that can handle any situation pretty early on thanks to the inheritance system. Still, I am having a lot of fun with the game and don't expect that to stop.

Pretty much, you can make a broken party. At that point the only thing stopping you is being ambushed, which feels very cheap and had me constantly saving just in case. I still love the game though.

An aside: Can anyone recommend an exploration focused-game with a Myst-like feel to it? In the mood for playing in a world I can explore, but with a notebook and pen by my side as I discover things and take notes for potential puzzles. No/limited combat would be good. Just an adventure.

Have you played the other games in the Myst series? 3's kind of constrained and not very explorationy, and it's kind of easy, but still pretty solid. I *loved* Riven though, and most of Uru (there were two puzzles that were dumb. One involved fireflies and it was /really/ dumb). I think Myst 4's regarded as the weakest, but it's not bad. 5's pretty solid from what I remember.

There are some exploration-oriented RPG Maker games. Yume Nikki and Middens come to mind -- middens has optional combat.

Kairo and The Sea Will Claim Everything are... also fairly cheap. TSWCE is great -- not really as explorationy but it's... great.

Um... maybe divisive but I'm gonna throw out recommendations for Shenmue and Chulip as well.

Oh, there's also Cosmology of Kyoto and Tong Nou if you have two hundred bucks lying around and don't mind some mental scarring. I like Tong Nou a lot but, fuck, when I played it, it's before anyone else knew about it and it was the most /bizarre/ thing I had ever seen and it was freaky.

Also, never got around t playing it, but GOG has The Last Express and it's supposed to be good.

@ Elegance/Darilon:

What I played of Strange Journey and Persona 3 were really easy, too. Partially because a lack of press turn but still having mechanics that otherwise relied on it being there, partially because none of the enemies are really that threatening. Also Persona 3 let you have to many personas/made it too easy to switch around.

SMT iOS - I beat Superman and Thor and now I'm in the Phantom Zone Diamond Realm. They took away my demons and I'm not sure if I want them back because this place has better demons...but I do want Gu Nao and Flaemis back, those took me forever to fuse and I can't find them. >:[

Also, beat Banjo-Kazooie. Despite some annoyances, it was actually a pretty great game.

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes